Happy April and soon-to-be May, everyone! The sun is finally shining in Vancouver and it is beginning to feel like summer. I am so grateful because I feel like I haven’t seen the sun and felt this good in months! I am looking forward to everything that the summer is going to bring.

The past month has been a bit of a blur with me, with finishing final projects and term papers, writing exams, and wrapping up the semester. It was very busy and a lot of work, but I am glad that the semester is over and ended on a high note!

In the midst of all that, I had the opportunity to go on a few weekend trips to Toronto and Calgary. I was so glad I had the chance to visit Toronto again! It’s been about four months since I was last in Toronto for my co-op term, and it was so nice to be able to reconnect with friends in the city for a few days. I really missed Toronto and knew that I would miss it even more going back, but I hadn’t expected to miss it as much as I did. Toronto still feels like home to me, everything feels so familiar and it felt like it had been only a few weeks since I had left. It feels like my city, and I really hope I have the opportunity to go back again in the future.

It was also great to visit Calgary, even though I was only there for less than 24 hours. I flew to Calgary right after my last exam, was there for an event and got to relax a bit, and then zipped back to Vancouver! It was a super short trip, but it was still a great way to celebrate officially being done the semester.

Since I’ve arrived back in Vancouver from Calgary, I have been spending time catching up with friends and relaxing. It has been really nice to have a bit of a breather from all the schoolwork I’ve been doing over the past few months, and relax before I jump in to work next week. I’ll be working in downtown Vancouver all summer, and I am really excited about it! I haven’t quite had the chance to really connect with Vancouver yet, and get to know it as well as I would like to, so I am hoping I will be able to do so this summer.

All in all, it was a good ending to the semester and I have high hopes for everything that the summer is going to bring. Stay tuned for more on #chiaratakesvancouver !